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27 Feb 2008 : Column 1683W—continued
| Overseas Travel ( 1) | |||||
| £000 | |||||
| RDAs | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 |
| (1) Figures refer to travel booked through travel agents. In some cases, it is not possible to separate subsistence/hotel costs from the travel costs (e.g. rail and air travel). (2) 2002-03 figures are not held centrally and can be provided only at disproportionate cost. (3) Records for 2002-03 show that total annual spend (UK travel and overseas) was £292,000. This figure cannot be separated. (4) From 2003-04, includes subsistence costs due to changes in the recording procedures. | |||||
Temporary Employment: Conditions of Employment
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what measures the Department has introduced to protect the employment rights of agency workers; and what plans he has to introduce further such measures. [187415]
Mr. McFadden: Agency Workers are already entitled to employment rights such as the national minimum wage and working time entitlements such as paid annual leave, and new regulations to protect vulnerable agency workers will come into force on 6 April 2008.
The Employment Bill will also give greater investigative powers to Agency Inspectors, increase the potential level of fines for breaching the regulations and reform the current system of dispute resolution at work.
Children, Schools and Families
Children: Care Homes
Helen Southworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will take steps to make Ofsted inspection reports on children’s homes available on the Ofsted website. [184396]
Kevin Brennan
[holding answer 4 February 2008]: There is currently no duty on the Chief Inspector for Education, Children’s Services and Skills to publish any inspection reports on the internet. However, the reports of all social care inspections, with the exception of children’s homes, are available on the website of the
Chief Inspector and Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted). Reports relating to children’s homes are excluded to ensure that inappropriate individuals cannot access the addresses of children’s homes and that individual children within those homes cannot be identified.
While the existing legislative framework does not prevent the publication of children’s homes reports, the National Care Standards Commission (Registration) Regulations 2001, as amended, currently prohibit the Chief Inspector from publishing that part of her register which includes the address of a children’s home. Therefore, when a children’s homes report is requested, a copy of a redacted report—which excludes the address of the home is made available. The Chief Inspector will shortly be launching a consultation to take account of the views of children, service providers and local authorities as to whether children’s homes reports should be published on the Ofsted website. We will consider what steps to take, if any, when the findings of that consultation become available.
Children: Homicide
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will commission an independent inquiry into the circumstances leading up to the death of Jessica Randall. [188711]
Kevin Brennan: Jessica Randall died tragically, just 54 days old, on 21 November 2005 at the hands of her father who was subsequently jailed for life in March 2007. On 13 February 2008 Northamptonshire Local Safeguarding Children Board published the Executive Summary of a Serious Case Review (SGR) into Jessica Randall’s death. It found that those procedures which were designed to protect Jessica were never activated, and that the outcome for her might have been different had the various indicators and signs noticed by agencies been acted upon. Every child death is a tragedy and Jessica’s particularly so. I do not see, however, any reason at this time for an independent inquiry. The perpetrator of Jessica's murder has been jailed for life and local services have accepted unreservedly the serious case review's conclusions and are committed to implementing the changes necessary to better protect children in the future. That is the best way forward to ensure the lessons of Jessica’s short life are fully learnt.
Christmas
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what his Department's policy is on the selection of (a) real and (b) artificial Christmas trees for his Department's festive decorations; and how real trees are disposed of. [173533]
Kevin Brennan: A 10ft fully decorated tree was hired for our Head Office building in London and was taken away after the festive season to be shredded and recycled. The three remaining buildings occupied by the Department all used existing artificial trees.
Departmental Carbon Emissions
Mr. Kemp: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps he has taken to reduce his Department's carbon dioxide emissions in 2008-09. [181843]
Kevin Brennan: To continue to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in 2008-09 my Department has taken the following steps:
Findings from Carbon Trust energy surveys on our headquarters buildings have been adopted and are being actioned within my Department’s environmental management system;
An ongoing major refurbishment project in our London headquarters building is expected to generate significant reductions in energy use through adoption of new ways of working and energy conserving lighting;
Launching and delivering an internal communications campaign to raise awareness on sustainability issues, highlight successes and initiate activities so leading to a more careful use of scarce resources.
Departmental Consultants
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what consultancy contracts his Department issued in each year since 2005; what the (a) value, (b) purpose and (c) contractor was in each case; and whether the consultant's report is publicly available in each case. [181890]
Kevin Brennan: Information on all consultancy contracts issued by the Department since 2005, their value, purpose, contractor details and whether the consultant's report is publicly available could only be provided at disproportionate cost
Departmental Marketing
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many posters or displays there are in the offices of his Department and its agencies displaying the names and photographs of Ministers; and how much was spent by his Department and its predecessor on producing such posters or displays in the last five years. [179916]
Kevin Brennan: The Department has two displays containing the names and photographs of the ministerial team at its head office in Sanctuary Buildings. These photographs have been updated at a total cost of £2038.
There are no posters dedicated to this information, although Ministers are included secondarily on a general organisation chart.
Records are not held centrally for any expenditure made by agencies to display this information.
Departmental Public Relations
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many external contracts his Department held with public relations companies since its inception; and what the total cost of those contracts was. [183192]
Kevin Brennan: The information provided relates to both the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, which were formed following the machinery of government changes in June 2007. It is not possible to provide separate costs for each Department during 2007-08 except at disproportionate cost.
Both Departments employ public relations agencies for specific communications tasks, most commonly working alongside our press offices to provide campaign support in local, regional and specialist media companies, They have used such agencies for 15 campaigns at a cost of £1.085 million since June 2007. These figures include contracts placed by both Departments using a framework agreement and by the Central Office of Information (COI) on our behalf.
Departmental Recycling
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what recycling schemes are in operation in each building operated by his Department. [176377]
Kevin Brennan: The Department manages the following recycling initiatives as a co-ordinated scheme throughout all its headquarters buildings:
Redundant furniture and electronic equipment (that cannot be re-used) is sent for recycling by third parties;
Waste from food production and consumption (where it can be separated and is in sufficient volume) is sent for recycling;
Our Department’s print suppliers are required to use the Dft Recycled Printing Papers framework, all paper used for printing publications must be recycled and the paper from any publications sent for disposal is recycled for use by participants of the DfT Printing Papers framework;
External contractors provide the safe collection and recycling of a variety of materials e.g., paper, cardboard, plastic cups and cans, glass, toner cartridges, plastic bottles, batteries, light bulbs and tubes;
All waste is constantly monitored, to identify further potential areas for recycling;
Green waste from grounds maintenance is sent for recycling by our contractors; and
Waste at our Sheffield office that cannot be reclaimed or re-used is sent to be turned into steam for heating and bought back .for use in the Sheffield building.
We also manage the following re-use and reclaim schemes that count as part of our performance on recycling for departmental returns:
Surplus furniture and electronic equipment is reclaimed for reuse within the Department itself or sent for re-use by third parties;
Surplus mobile phones are collected and donated for sale by charities to re-use;
Electronic noticeboards are available to advertise surplus office materials and so minimise the need for ordering further Items and potentially increasing wastage;
As part of office moves, contacts are encouraged to use the electronic noticeboard when preparing to disperse surplus and redundant materials to other teams; and
Staff are encouraged to use suitable paper waste as scrap pads.
In the Department’s Sustainable Development in Government return for 2005/06 we were pleased to report 43 per cent. of our waste recycled and the 2010 target already met The Department’s return for 2006/07 is due for publication by the Sustainable Development Commission soon.
Disabled
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families which buildings occupied by his Department (a) are and (b) are not fully accessible to people with disabilities; and if he will make a statement. [163953]
Kevin Brennan: The Department has made assessments of access to their premises and of the need for reasonable adjustment.
Of the five buildings occupied by the Department five are considered to be fully accessible to disabled people.
Educational Visits
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps the Government have taken to encourage schools to make school trips (a) affordable by and (b) available to all pupils. [188538]
Jim Knight: Through the manifesto for Learning Outside the Classroom, we are encouraging schools, local authorities and visit providers, to sign up to the vision that
“every young person (0-19) should experience the world beyond the classroom as an essential part of learning and personal development, whatever their age, ability or circumstances”.
Almost 900 have already done so.
Through our manifesto partners and other channels we are promoting the personal and educational benefits of learning outside the classroom to schools and parents. The ‘Out and About package’ of guidance, practical tools, resources and training modules for schools will be published in the summer term.
With the new secondary curriculum being introduced from this September, we are emphasising the importance of relevant practical experiences as part of subject teaching.
Not all learning outside the classroom incurs a financial cost, for example, many schools use their grounds and local area. When schools do go further afield, for example on day visits, they are not permitted to charge pupils if these visits are wholly or mainly during school time, or are linked to the curriculum or external examination courses, although they may request a contribution towards costs.
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) what estimate he has made of the percentage of A-level geography students who had the opportunity to participate in a half-day field trip in the school year ended 1997; [189162]
(2) what estimate he has made of the percentage of A-level geography students who did not have the opportunity to conduct course related field-work in the school year ended 1997; [189163]
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